Hyperid. p. 16, ed Babingt. Καὶ συκοφαντεῖς τὴν βουλὴν, προκλήσεις προτιθεὶς, καὶ ἐρωτῶν ἐν ταῖς προκλήσεσιν, πόθεν ἔλαβες τὸ χρυσίον, καὶ τίς ἦν σοὶ ὁ δοὺς, καὶ πῶς; τελευταῖον δ᾽ ἴσως ἐρωτήσεις, καὶ εἰ ἐχρήσω τῷ χρυσίῳ, ὥσπερ τραπεζιτικὸν λόγον παρὰ τῆς βουλῆς ἀπαιτῶν.
This monstrous sentence creates a strong presumption in favor of the defendant,—and a still stronger presumption against the accuser. Compare Deinarchus adv. Demosth. s. 6, 7.
The biographer apud Photium states that Hyperides and four other orators procured (κατεσκεύασαν) the condemnation of Demosthenes by the Areopagus.
[727] The biographer of Hyperides (Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 48) tells us that he was the only orator who kept himself unbribed; the comic writer Timokles names Hyperides along with Demosthenes and others as recipients (ap. Athenæ. viii. p. 342).
[728] See this point urged by Deinarchus adv. Demosth. s. 69, 70.
[729] We read in Pausanias (ii. 33, 4) that the Macedonian admiral Philoxenus, having afterwards seized one of the slaves of Harpalus, learnt from him the names of those Athenians whom his master had corrupted; and that Demosthenes was not among them. As far as this statement goes, it serves to exculpate Demosthenes. Yet I cannot assign so much importance to it as Bishop Thirlwall seems to do. His narrative of the Harpalian transactions is able and discriminating (Hist. vol. vii. ch. 56. p. 170 seqq.).
[730] Diodor. xix. 8.
[731] See the Fragments of Hyperides, p. 36, ed. Babington.
[732] Curtius, x. 2, 6.
[733] Curtius, x. 2, 6. The statement of Diodorus (xviii. 8)—that the rescript was popular and acceptable to all Greeks, except the Athenians and Ætolians—cannot be credited. It was popular, doubtless, with the exiles themselves, and their immediate friends.